NTAP

Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater

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Image: Erica Nicol Takeaways: Junk tech should continue to collapse, but the stylistic area of large cap growth and big cap tech should remain resilient. Moderately elevated levels of inflation coupled with interest rates hovering at all-time lows isn’t a terrible combination. In fact, it’s not bad at all. The markets are digesting the huge gains of the past few years so far in 2022, and the excesses in ARKK funds, crypto, SPACs, and meme stocks are being rid from the system. Our best ideas are “outperforming” the very benchmarks that are outperforming everyone else. The BIN portfolio is down 6.4% and the DGN portfolio is down 3.2% year to date. The SPY is down 7.8%, while the average investor … Read more

Cisco Systems Posts Solid Earnings Update; Supply Chain Hurdles Impacting Near Term Outlook

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Image Source: Cisco Systems Inc – First Quarter of Fiscal 2022 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan On November 17, Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO) reported first quarter earnings for fiscal 2022 (period ended October 30, 2021) that missed consensus top-line estimates but beat consensus bottom-line estimates. Shares of CSCO fell initially after its latest earnings update was published due to its near term guidance coming in a tad softer than expected, though we caution that this is primarily due to supply chain headwinds negatively impacting Cisco Systems and the networking hardware industry more broadly. As global health authorities work towards bringing the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic to an end worldwide, the supply chain situation should improve going forward. We include Cisco … Read more

Hard Work and the Trust That Binds

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Image Source: Terry Johnson By Brian Nelson, CFA We’ll have our traditional Valuentum Weekly email coming out on Sunday, and I’m excited to say our team is putting the finishing touches on our technology industry update, so we’ll have a whole bunch of fresh reports for you to look at Sunday evening/Monday morning. It’s easy to forget how much we’ve been through the past two years. Often, we forget how helpful the warning that markets were going to crash was the weekend before they did on February 22, 2020, “Is a Stock Market Crash Coming? – Coronavirus Update and P/E Ratios,” how we thought dollar-cost-averaging made sense at the bottom in March 2020, and how we went “all-in” in April … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week July 9

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending July 9. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week Caledonia Mining (CMCL): now $0.13 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.12. Civista Bancshares (CIVB): now $0.14 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.12. Eagle Point Income Company (EIC): now $0.09 per share monthly dividend, was $0.0085. First Republic Bank (FRC): now $0.2938 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.2200.            Five Star Bancorp (FSBC): now $0.15 per share quarterly dividend. Fortitude Gold Corporation (FTCO): now $0.035 per share monthly … Read more

ICYMI — Video: Exclusive 2020 — Furthering the Financial Discipline

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ICYMI — Video: Exclusive 2020 — Furthering the Financial Discipline — — In this 40+ minute video jam-packed with must-watch content, Valuentum’s President Brian Nelson talks about the Theory of Universal Valuation and how his work is furthering the financial discipline. Learn the pitfalls of factor investing and modern portfolio theory and how the efficient markets hypothesis holds little substance in the wake of COVID-19. He’ll talk about which companies Valuentum likes and why, and which areas he’s avoiding. This and more in Valuentum’s 2020 Exclusive conference call.   Note: This video was originally published August 2, 2020.    To watch the video >>   The Theory of Universal Valuation —– Valuentum members have access to our 16-page stock reports, … Read more

ALERT: Raising Cash in the Newsletter Portfolios

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January 27, 2021 ALERT: Raising Cash in the Newsletter Portfolios We are raising the cash position in the simulated Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio to 10%-20%. — By Brian Nelson, CFA — Our research has been absolutely fantastic for a long time, but 2020 may have been our best year yet. You can read the 2020 recap here. With the S&P 500 trading within our fair value estimate range of 3,530-3,920 (and the markets rolling over while showing signs of abnormal behavior), we’re raising the cash position in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio to 10%-20%. — For more conservative investors, the high end of this range may even be larger, especially … Read more

IBM Is Still A Disappointment

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We’ve never liked IBM. The company has all the attributes of a stock that we’d prefer to stay as far away from as possible. By Brian Nelson, CFA We received a few questions regarding IBM (IBM) from members, and we wanted to make this brief post. Prior to the company’s fourth-quarter 2020 results, released January 22, shares had a price-to-fair value (P/FV) ratio of 0.96 (1=fairly valued), and they were not included in either the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio, or the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, or the High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio. This means that we have very little interest in the company, and our interest continues to be minimal. You can read our take on the firm’s track record in Value … Read more

3 Lessons in Portfolio Management Over 10 Years

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Dear members: — We’re finally getting a pause in the rapid ascent of the markets on September 3rd. Though headlines may look scary and momentum/volatility investors could start to pile on to the downside, a modest retracement is actually a good thing. We continue to focus on the long haul with our processes, and we’re viewing the sell-off as profit taking, for the most part. — In the near term, the markets will also have to digest some speculators betting on mean reversion between “value” (cyclical) versus “growth” (secular), but we maintain the view that the value-versus-growth conversation is largely nonsense (see block quotes below), and mean reversion is something akin to the gamblers’ fallacy, in my humble opinion. Investors should also continue … Read more

Valuentum Website Overview

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Overview of the key features of valuentum.com/ (03:55). Valuentum (val∙u∙n∙tum) [val-yoo-en-tuh-m] Securities Inc. is an independent investment research publisher, offering premium equity reports, dividend reports, and ETF reports, as well as commentary across all sectors/companies, a Best Ideas Newsletter (spanning market caps, asset classes), a Dividend Growth Newsletter, modeling tools/products, and more. Independence and integrity remain our core, and we strive to be a champion of the investor. Valuentum is based in the Chicagoland area. Valuentum is not a money manager, broker, or financial advisor. Valuentum is a publisher of financial information. The Benefits of Premium Membership >> Subscribe Now!

Earnings Brief: NTAP, URBN, HPE, SJM, MDT

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Image Source: Valuentum By Brian Nelson, CFA Pantry stuffing was prevalent during the second quarter, and mall-based retail is holding up better than some had expected. Cloud-based services companies continue to experience breakneck growth, and medical procedure volumes are picking up as we learn more and more about COVID-19. NetApp, Inc. NetApp (NTAP) is another one for your radar. According to the firm’s recent 10-K Filing, NetApp is a leader in hybrid cloud data services. The company helps its “customers ensure their data and applications are in the right place at the right time with the right characteristics and capabilities to enable new insights and accelerate innovation.” The cloud space continues to be in favor by investors. NetApp reported its … Read more